the sign and
attribute of sovereignty."

But to continue the list: At Strelitz, a clergyman refused the request of
the Prussian colonel of the 89th Regiment to allow his church to be used
for a thanksgiving service in honour of the birth of William II, and
preached a sermon declaring that the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz,
and he alone, had the right to have a divine service and a sermon in
honour of his birthday.

And yet another instance: The Emperor has organised a regatta to be held
on Lake Wannsee on May 30 for all yachts and pleasure boats owned by
princes and by the German aristocracy. The Archduke, heir to the
Austrian Throne, has refused to honour the occasion with his presence.

The toast at Dusseldorf, "Myself the only Master," has been very
generally condemned; equally that which the Emperor addressed to the
students at Bonn, when he said to them "Let your jolly rapiers have full
play," or in other words, "Indulge to the top of your bent, and without
regard to the laws, in your orgies of brutality." People in Germany are
beginning to think that William reminds them a little too much of the
incoherencies of his great-uncle, Frederick William, who was undoubtedly
clever in all sorts of ways, but who died insane.

At the shipyards of Elbing, William II narrowly escaped being wounded by
the fall of the large mast of the ship _Kohlberg_, which had been sawn
through in several places. He has just had his coachman, Menzel,
arrested, who very nearly brought him to his death by driving him into a
lime tree in a _troika_ presented to him by the Tzar.

At present it is his wish that Holland and Belgium should receive him.
The Queen Regent and Leopold II (in spite of the latter's violent love
for Germany) are hesitating, by no means certain as to the welcome which
their peoples would extend to him. William II proposes to strike the
imagination of the Dutch, as he did that of the Belgians, and to make his
appearance before them, aboard his yacht, the _Hohenzollern_, which Dutch
vessels are to go to meet and escort. To make the thing complete (and it
may well be that the idea is germinating in his mind) it would only
require him to visit the fortifications on the Meuse. The _Berliner
Tageblatt_ in a long article informs us that the Emperor declares them to
be _perfect_. 'Tis a good word. . . .

When the Imperial traveller shall have exhausted all pretexts for rushing
about on this Continent, he will go